Enoch stepped out of the wall- slowly, carefully. The aging machinery behind him had been making unpleasant noises since the Eldenwise had started them up, but as their labor increased, so, too, did the protest of the great metal beasts. Some hummed and hissed menacingly while others creaked or chirped or simply screamed a shrill, endless cry. Toward the end, before the room had turned inside out, the metal beasts had begun to rattle and clatter and breathe smoke- so much worse than the dust they coughed when the Eldenwise awakened them; great black clouds of it, filled with scents Enoch had never before experienced.
"This," he reasoned, "must be what the air is like without the filter." Unconsciously, he adjusted his filtration mask and the hoses that projected from it, the hoses that increased the surface area of the filters and which collected untainted water from the air itself. Then the room turned inside out.
"Almost! Be ready!" Yelled one of the Eldenwise. "It will be ready soon!"
Enoch began to question himself for the first time since the quest had begun. He hafted his axe partly in habit and partly to reassure himself. He, like all the other candidates, had been trained from birth, strengthened, and taught the ways of war and personal combat by the Eldenwise, the oldest members of the tribes, who kept alive in themselves many secrets of the past. He had heard tales that the Eldenwise had advised the tribal chiefs since before his grandfather's grandfather's grandfather had been born, and untold years before that.
Always, in all tribes, the Eldenwise were the same: studious, critical, cautious, scholarly. And every year did they come together to select the cleverest child and the strongest, fastest child from each tribe, and it was a great honor to have one of one's own children selected. These children would be trained the rest of the lives: the brightest children would learn the mysteries of the past and other knowledge long-since dead, dead perhaps even before the Burning that poisoned the air and boiled the seas and resulted in the desert lands in which Enoch was raised. These children would go on to become the next of the Eldenwise as their tutors aged and died.
The warriors had a different lot. When they were ready- when the Eldenwise had declared them to be at the peak of their training and reflexes and the various elixirs had grown their bodies to be as durable and strong as possible, they were drawn together, and these banded brothers were ordered to fight one another, to the death.
The Eldenwise watched; always they watched and judged and scored and after days of sequestered discussion, they would determine if the survivor had been worthy. "There remains only a chance for two," they have always claimed, "and that which survives tells us of a mighty warrior, beyond all human ability, and as great as the tallest of the black ruins in the valley below. Only that warrior may pass, escorted by the brightest of the Tenderwise. Each the other will serve, and each the other will protect to the best of their abilities." Then they would pass judgement. Enoch wondered how horrible it must be to turn and fight and ultimately slay men who were raised with you from childhood- men who were closer than clan: men who were your closest brothers. Enoch shuddered as he wondered what it must be like, in a world with far-too-few people already, to have done this soul-crushing thing..., and then to be found unworthy....
The unworthy were allowed to return to their tribes, but so far as he knew, none ever had ever done so. "Who could?" He wondered aloud, softly. Those who had gone before always seemed to orefer a self-exile out into the Sands, and perhaps to the Great Glass Sea beyond that.
"No distractions!" Screamed one of the Eldenwise. "The time is here! Stay alert!"
Enoch stared dead ahead, the small form of the chosen Tenderwise just visible in his peripheral vision. The Tender's eyes were beyond wide open, a look of absolute incredulity bursting through his features. Enoch suspected his own face would look the same, if only he understood what was going on. He had seen these strange metal forms in the ruins all his life, and had no idea that they were slumbering beasts.
The air in front of him simmered and glowed for a moment, and the strange metal creatures began to howl and vibrate in agony. "We've not much tolerance, and less time! It has to be now!" Screeched and Eldenwise.
"I know!" another screamed over the cacophony. "But the power is weak! We are _trying_!"
Enoch stared again at the air in front him, not knowing what to expect. He thought again about what it must be like. He counted himself blessed that he had not been found unworthy. After countless years, the Eldenwise has found a warrior they believed to be worthy: a giant of a man, possessed of unparalleled strength and stamina, able to wield his axe almost faster than the eye could follow.
His axe. He loved his axe. He had been trained to love his weapon, and the ruins were scrounged for metal again and again, until the forges produced a weapon that Enoch felt was perfect for his combat style, and large and durable enough to counter blows easily-- an important distinction, as he was now charged forever with protecting the Tinderwise who was selected to travel with him.
The air shimmered again, and for a brief instant, he believed he saw something that was not there, but even as it caught his attention, it disappeared. Suddenly it was back- a spot of color in his world of rust and dust and char-- and it began to grow.
Color. An amazing expanse of it: green and blue and a crisp clear horizon unmuted by the all pervasive poisons of the dust. He stilled his wonder and focused, tensing for the leap. He gestured to the harness pack he was wearing and the Tinder obediently climbed into it and strapped himself to the giant. Enoch himself went over everything he had been taught until he could repeat it: one evil man split the world from its Destiny. There was another path where that man was stopped by a great warrior and a brilliant Elden- no; that was certainly what he was, but that was not the word they had used... A "Scientist." A great and mighty warrior and a brilliant scientist, and a team of men and women of incredible, magic-like power. Enoch must find this team, join them, bond with them, and when the time comes that a great evil threatens to turn the destiny of the world toward the Great Burning, he must enlist their aid and risk his life to prevent it at all costs.
This is why he stepped into the scene that appeared like a magic globe in the center of the room, even as the immobile roaring metal beasts themseves began to burn and die and as he heard at least two of the Eldenwise scream in agony-- he could not afford to look back, lest the chance be lost forever to the last of men.
"Now!" One of the Eldenwise demanded. "It must be now!" Enoch leaped into the alien scene that filled the center of the room and at once was surrounded by darkness. He reached forwars with his free hand and felt a purchase- stone! A ledge of some sort. He pulled himself forward even as his mind told,him that 'up' and 'down' were no longer relevant. After painful effort, light shown through the lenses or his filtration mask, and he felt upon his shoulder the caress of the coolest beeeze he had ever known. He paused and carefully turned his head to tale stock of the situation. His head and shoulder protruded from some massive barrier of shaped stone, like those found in the ruins, but shot through with color- red with hints of gold and white and grey. He shut down his fear, ignore his confusion, and braced himself for the exertion of pulling his weapon hand through.
Enoch stepped out of the wall- slowly, carefully....
One of the hardest words to pronounce in the Swedish language: västkustskt -- "of or pertaining to the Western coast". Typiskt västkustskt -- "typically westcoastian".
The problem, or at least a major part of the problem, is that she's actually fairly true to her comics persona.
Carol Danvers got her start as an antagonistic secondary love interest to the original Captain Marvel. She was Air Force Intelligence at the base Mar-Vell infiltrated before he broke from the Kree military. She's always been a hard-ass with a suppressed soft side. Her career was put on a treadmill after all the security problems that were caused by Mar-Vell's battles, and it took her awhile to recover. Near the end of the book she was exposed to a radiation accident that took years to manifest into the Ms. Marvel powerset. And during this time, she was an independent security consultant.
Then came the whole Rogue story and the transformation to Binary and finally the transition to the current Captain Marvel. The MCU version has her as a pilot and not an intelligence operative and that's caused a slight shift in her personality. She went from being Hawkman to Hal Jordan Green Lantern. But neither of those are warm nor fuzzy and lack feminine traits.
So, you have a female Jack Bauer with a spotty comic history that's suddenly been christened the most powerful hero in the MCU. I'm not surprised that non-readers haven't embraced the character, but I did think she'd get more approval from readers. The backlash against the actress, that from what I've read comes from one out of context comment, isn't helping either.
Since this first went up, Guidelines have been made official by the admins etc.
So.. putting them here for anyone who missed them:
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"Some of us are built more like an oak than a willow."
You are all literal stick figures.
I should really turn on notifications for OotS, it comes out so irregularly I forget it exists sometimes. Not quite up there with PS238 (which I'm finally giving up hope for when it hits the one year hiatus mark this month) but it sure ain't fast.
Lawnmower Boy reacted to Cancer in Funny Pics II: The Revenge